In January 1804, a man was shot dead on a dark lane in West London. For weeks beforehand, residents of Hammersmith believed their streets were haunted by a tall figure in white, silent, advancing, and impossible to catch. Neighbours formed armed patrols. Passwords were agreed for meeting in the dark. Rumour hardened into routine. When Francis Smith raised a shotgun and fired at what he believed was the apparition, the haunting ended instantly. The “ghost” was Thomas Millwood, a bricklayer walking home from visiting his family, dressed in the white clothes of his trade.

This episode reconstructs the long winter that led to that gunshot. We trace how fear spread through conversation, newspapers, and testimony. We examine the night itself using court records from the Old Bailey, the shouted challenge, the silence, the shot heard across Black Lion Lane. And we follow the case into the courtroom, where the trial became something far larger than a local tragedy.

Because the question was no longer whether a ghost existed. It was whether belief, even sincere belief, could excuse killing. The Hammersmith Ghost case would go on to shape the law of self-defence and criminal responsibility for generations. But before it became a legal landmark, it was a neighbourhood gripped by fear, a man misrecognised in the dark, and a community forced to confront what panic can make ordinary people do. This is not a story about the supernatural. It is a story about how fear becomes action, and how the law decides what that action is worth.

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If you have a story where crime and the otherworldly intertwine, something strange, unexplained or just plain haunted, get in touch at [email protected].

Paranormia is an Audio Always production.

Presented by Elizabeth McCafferty.

Written and produced by Mansi Vithlani.

Executive produced by Ailsa Rochester.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.